Cuttack, Nov. 6: Police today arrested seven persons, including an engineering student, for allegedly kidnapping a 30-year-old medical representative.
The accused have been identified as Manas Chand, 22, Bijay Rao, 23, Manoj Bihari, 23, Muna Behera, 20, Arpan Das, 22, Amit Singh, 21, and Somya Kanta Sahu, 20, the engineering student.
The medical representative, Suresh Das, whom the abductors had tortured, is now admitted at a city hospital. His condition is said to be stable.
Suresh was abducted from near OMP Square when he was returning home from Keonjhar around 4am on November 1.
The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs 10 lakh for his release over telephone the same day.
Police commissioner R.P. Sharma said the gang had taken Suresh away in an SUV and kept him confined to a house at Khandagiri, where the engineering student stayed as a paying guest.
A senior official said nine persons were involved in the kidnapping.
Two of them, including the kingpin Taslim Saha, are absconding.
The police have seized two pistols, five rounds of live ammunition, three motorcycles, two gold chains and 10 mobile phones from them. The gang was also involved in a series of chain-snatching and robbery incidents in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, the police said.
“The gang had demanded a ransom of Rs 10 lakh and tortured Suresh. His family members had lodged a complaint with Markatnagar police and a special team was formed to nab the culprits,” said Sharma.
Sharma said that whether the abductors had planned to kidnap Suresh for any specific reason was being investigated. The police said that after the kidnapping, the accused had taken Suresh to Khurda and then to Naraj.
Subsequently, the gang decided to keep Suresh inside Somya’s room at Khandagari in Bhubaneswar but had to shift him after the house owner began questioning about the people visiting the place.
The special police team nabbed two members of the gang in Bhubaneswar. Since the abductors were frequently changing location, it was initially difficult for the cops to nab them.
